Although originally stemming from the "Dionysia" or religious
festivals dedicated to Dionysius, the God of Wine, Greek tragedy
was solemn, poetic, and philosophic in tone. Plays such as the ones
about Oedipus often told the tale of a central character/protagonist
who was an admirable but not necessarily, a perfect person. This
individual was often confronted by hostile forces from both outside
(the fates or gods) and within (individual free will, pride, etc.). The
protagonist often had to make difficult moral/ethical choices in
order to resolve these conflicts. If the protagonist's struggle ended
in defeat or death, the play was labeled a tragedy. Most Greek
tragedies were based on myths and, as Aristotle says, were "an
imitation of an action" that was both serious and complete in itself.

Your browser does not support the IFRAME tag.

Tragedies were marked by certain common elements. They
consisted of a series of dramatic episodes linked by choral odes,
chanted by an on-stage chorus of 12 -15 persons. This chorus often
commented on the dramatic action or analyzed, in their own
fashion, the pattern of events and the behavior of the central
character/characters. They sang, danced, and recited the choral
odes and lyrics to the accompaniment of such musical instruments
as the lyre or flute (which Dionysus himself is known to have
played). The main episodes were performed by, at the most, three
actors who could appear simultaneously on stage. Men played both
men and women's parts and the three central actors shared all the
roles in a play. Masks were worn to depict the kind of characters
they represented, such as an aging man or a young woman. The use
of masks was a way to surrender or submerge one's own identity --
a principle basic to all Dionysian rituals.

For a clearer idea of how Greek tragedy works, one must refer to
Aristotle's definitive comments given in his great critical treatise
about Greek drama, entitled The Poetics (circa 335 B.C.). It deals
with theories of Greek tragedy as seen in the finest plays of
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. These principles of classical
Greek tragedy have influenced almost all the later tragic dramatists
of the Western world.

Though modern tragedy often deviates widely from the Greek
classical norms, it still acknowledges the universality of Aristotle's
fundamental concepts, especially his ability to pinpoint those
elements in human nature that are, always and everywhere,
responsible for tragedy in life.